Lost Souls
by KimiStorm
Summary: Piko Utatane is the worst choice for a leader, probably worse than Lord Voldemort himself according to Miku Hatsune, but somehow he made it as the leader of their group of four lost hunters(two of which are fresh out of Beacon) in the middle of grimm infested woods. Rated T as of chapter 5 due to violence, self-doubt, and characters passing out.
1. Chapter 1

"Guys!" Piko cried out into the eerily still air. Just moments before the place was seething with gunshots, yells, and grimm attacking any human in sight. "Kaito! Gakupo!" with a satisfying click and whoosh, the five foot long staff shrunk into a six inch pole which was promptly returned to its holster. "Luka! Gumi!" Piko looked down when his foot got caught on something, and immediately cringed before moving his boot encased foot away from the rapidly decomposing corpse on the rocky ground. "Miku! Len! Rin!" Piko called out as he desperately searched for any signs of the group he was traveling with.

"I'm here." Piko seemed to jump ten feet into the air when Len dropped down onto the ground beside him.

"Any sign of your sister?" Piko asked worriedly asked he looked up to see the branch that Len had evidently perched himself on top of during the duration of the fight.

Len pushed his glasses back up before answering, "no."

"Your sister's passed out behind that bush over there." A third voice devoid of any emotion stated before jerking a thumb to point to the bush.

"And you didn't think about helping her?" Len demanded as he rushed over to the bush, but not before he threw a cold glare at Miku.

"I obviously didn't." The teal-haired woman replied.

"Have you seen anyone else?" Piko asked.

"No. The others probably ditched us because we weren't pulling our weight. Correction, you Len and Rin aren't pulling your own weight." Miku responded as she returned her bow to it's holster.

Piko gave Miku a confused glance before running to Len to check on their unconscious friend.

"Rin! Rin!" Len harshly slapped his twin sister's face in an attempt to wake her up.

"Are there any wounds?" Piko asked.

"I've got this alright!" Len snapped, "I don't need you to help me with everything." Len also gave Piko a glare before returning to his sister.

"I'm just trying to be helpful." Piko hesitantly defended as he picked up Rin's discarded giant fan.

"Well I've got this." Len responded deliberately. "Rin wake up! I've got some oranges for you."

"Hmm? I heard something about oranges." Rin asked sleepily as she blinked her eyes and squinted against the light.

"See. I've got this. I don't need your help." Len said pointedly before standing up and brushing the dirt off his shorts. "Miku. What should we do? We've apparently lost Kaito, Gakupo, Luka, and Gumi, and are now stranded here in the middle of nowhere." Len turned to the more experienced huntress for advice.

"How am I supposed to know? I just know how to deal with myself. Not myself and three dead weights." Miku responded scathingly.

"Wait. We've lost everyone else?" Rin asked quietly as she rubbed her head. "You mean to say that all of the other, more experienced, hunters and huntresses are completely lost?" her voice quickly raised into hysteria.

"Well, technically-" Len began but was cut off.

"Yes." Miku answered bluntly. "Deal with it." That sealed the deal and the bow wearing woman burst into tears.

"Your tears are the worst thing that has happened all day." Miku said, "so be quiet before I make you."

"Miku. You're not helping." Len said fiercely into the taller woman's face. "We need to find the others or else get killed by the grimm out here, and to do that, we need a leader. Since Miku isn't making any effort to help any of us survive. I appoint myself."

"No." Rin stated immediately as she ceased her intense crying.

"And why not?" Len crossed his arms across his chest and looked suspiciously at his twin.

"Because you're a horrible leader. You'd much rather stay in your room with all your computers and geek stuff then lead a group of people!" Rin replied hotly, but her eyes were still red and puffy and her cheeks had the remains of her tears, which caused Len to dismiss her as 'still emotionally unstable'.

"So you think Piko would make a better leader?" Miku asked.

"Yes!" the blonde cried out.

"Why?" everyone else demanded.

"He's the worst candidate for a leader! Probably worse than Voldemort himself!" Miku retaliated, "he's got absolutely no self-esteem-"

"Frankly. I think he was peer pressured into being a hunter-" Len said.

"I don't have any experience!" Piko yelled out.

"Well, he's better than Len, Miku, or I." Rin sniffled.

"I agree with the better than Miku or her." Len stated, "and I don't think Miku really cares about the outcome of our lives." Len glanced over to Miku and the fact that she had already walked away from their group into the forest proved his point.

"Third party voter!" Rin called out fiercely, "I vote Piko!"

"That doesn't count!" the pony-tailed blond shouted. "It's one vote! And frankly, you're biased."

"Miku!" Rin called out in a last minute attempt to gain support.

"I vote the one with the more useful semblance or random weird skill in the case of both of you." Miku called out.

Len began a vehement staring contest with Piko who quickly looked away.

"Which would be?" Rin prompted Miku.

"Piko." Miku said simply before stalking even further away.

"Ha! Len, you can't fight with that!" Rin crowed, "suck it!"

"No." Piko said suddenly.

"What? Why?" Rin asked as she paused from her triumphant cheering to look at Piko with confusion written all over her face.

"Because I'm not a qualified leader. Everything Miku and Len said about me is true." Piko argued.

"Well. Since apparently this is a democracy, you're stuck with that position." Len said snarkily. Clearly he was still bitter about losing to Piko.

"Len." Rin said in a warning tone. Spending twenty-one years with her twin lead her to knowing exactly what would set him off.

"You know what? No. Don't you dare 'Len' me. Piko won, there's nothing I can do. You clearly don't support me, and I don't need those types of people in my life. So, if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to go over there, and you aren't going to bother me!" Len yelled back in fury.

Rin sighed, Len definitely took that minor loss to heart, and just like normal Len, he proceeded to blow up in everyone's faces. "Len, couldn't you at least try to be a happy supportive person?"

"Look where optimism has got me." Len said darkly, "absolutely nowhere." He then stomped angrily away from Rin and Piko.

"Please! Piko! You have to do this." Rin begged as she got down on her knees.

"Okay." Piko stuttered as he put his hands out in front of him, "I'll do it."

"Thank you!" Rin cried out.

"Hey Rin?" Piko asked dizzily as his eyes crossed and he swayed on his feet.

"Yeah?" Rin responded.

"Since when did you have a giant white spider on your head?" Piko asked woozily before his body collapsed unforgivingly onto the harsh ground.


	2. Chapter 2

"Piko! Piko!" the silver-haired male blinked his eyes as the faraway voice and face came into focus.

"Would anyone like to tell me why his green eye is practically glowing?"

"Heh." Piko laughed, "your face is soft." He proceeded to pet Miku's teal twin-tails.

"He hit his head." She responded monotonously as she slapped Piko's hand away, only for it to return and pet her hair.

"That doesn't explain why his eye was glowing just a second ago." Len sat back onto the heels of his black boots and brought up his question again.

"Maybe it's just something that happens with people who have different colored eyes." Rin shrugged.

Piko giggled and leaned his head back onto the ground as his body flickered like it was a video experiencing slow internet.

"What in the world just happened?" Miku asked as she quickly backed away.

"This is just a dream. Piko isn't just a figment of our imagination. He hasn't gone insane. I haven't gone insane. This is just a dream." Rin muttered the mantra to herself as she held her head and closed her eyes like she was experiencing an intense migraine.

Len tilted his head to the side and squinted his eyes. He then placed his hand onto Piko's shoulder and immediately his blue eyes closed as his head fell forwards. As if he had just fallen asleep on his knees.

"What the heck?" Miku demanded, "now both of the guys have passed out and are probably insane!" Miku grabbed her bow and quickly nocked an arrow into it as she spun around to scan the area.

"Miku, relax. Len's just using his semblance!" Rin jumped to her feet and rested a hand on the taller woman's arm, "at least. I think so. That's what happens when he uses his semblance, his physical body zonks out. But…" Rin trailed off into her own train of thought.

"But…?" Miku prompted the short blonde after a moment of silence.

"His semblance only works with computers and electronic objects." Rin answered slowly.

"Great! So Piko has been a droid this entire time!" Miku threw her hands up into the air in frustration.

Rin tapped her index fingers together and rolled onto the balls of her feet. "Well, I don't know. I've only seen him do it with electronics."

"So how long is he going to be like that?" Miku asked as she looked around keenly for any remaining grimm.

"Five minutes on the dot." The giant fan wielder replied quickly, "not a moment longer or a moment less."

"Well. His semblance just became all the more useless." The bow wielder scoffed. Both women stiffened when they heard the howl of a grimm in the distance. "As soon as these two wake up. We're out." Miku demanded.

"You've got that right." Rin agreed nervously. Once again the two women tensed when they heard the deep intake of a breath. As if the owner of the voice just resurfaced from being underwater for too long. "Len!" the owner of the voice ran towards the kneeling twin. The force of the wind caused her knee-length skirt to catch onto her legs. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Len cried out in a panic as he held his head. His shards of the perfect sky that people called eyes were wide open as if he had just seen a ghost. "I don't know what I saw! It wasn't a computer! But if it was a human I couldn't have gone in!"

"'It' just so happens to be a person." Piko groaned as he sat up.

"Nobody asked you!" Len snapped back in a hysteria.

"Len!" Rin scolded her blond twin.

"Sorry to rain on your parade." Miku said coldly from above the group that was on the ground. "But there's a grimm in this area, so if you don't get your game together, we're going to be killed by that grimm. So let's leave now and find a better place to camp."

"I'm sorry. Who died and made you leader?" Len asked snarkily.

"You all will be dead if you don't listen to me." Miku answered back with an extra emphasis on 'will'.

"She's right. We've got to move." Piko agreed as he stood back up and dusted dirt off of his white trench coat.

"Len. Come on." Rin tugged on her brother's arm to try and wake him from his shock-induced stupor.

"Get up you lazy butt." Miku demanded as she grabbed Len's tiny ponytail and yanked up.

"Ow!" Len shrieked as he jumped to his feet and grabbed his twin pistols to point it at Miku.

"What's got you in a twist?" Miku snarled.

Len shook his head before stowing his guns back into their holsters, "sorry."

"We've got to go!" Rin grabbed her giant fan that was still on the ground and attached it to the holster on her back. "Where to?" she then looked up expectantly at Piko, who looked at Miku for advice. Miku scoffed before turning around and heading off in a direction.

"That way then." Piko said as he followed with his staff in his hands.

"Are you alright Len?" Rin put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes.

Len's eyes met with identical blue eyes before whispering, "Piko's not natural."


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay. We'll set camp here." Miku called out before heading off into the woods alone.

"We'll want to start a fire." Piko stated as he tried to recall what they had done just twenty-four hours prior.

"On it!" Rin cried out as she grabbed rocks to place in a circle and then ran off to find some dry sticks to use for the fuel.

"You guys still got some food in your packs?" Piko asked.

Len nodded his head before sitting down at the base of the tree and resuming his shell-shocked demeanor.

"Hey Len. You alright?" Piko walked up to Len and crouched down to meet his eyes.

"Don't talk to me!" Len snapped as his own blue eyes met Piko's different colored ones. "Don't touch me too." He added coldly.

There was a twang of a bow, a rustle of leaves, and the last cries of some sort of animal. Miku shortly returned with a squirrel held in her gloved hand. "Here's some food. You cook."

Piko nodded and began to busy himself with roasting the squirrel on the already crackling fire that Rin had managed to create. He was so engrossed with his work, that he didn't realize Miku grab both Rin and Len and walk away. "Hey guys. The squirrel's done." Piko called out as he turned around to see the darkened and abandoned area behind him. "Guys?" Piko put the slightly charred body of the squirrel down before taking his own weapon out in a defensive form. "Guys? Where are you? This isn't funny!" the silverette cried out.

"Piko. Why are you a leader?" a haunting voice asked.

"Who's there?" Piko swung his curved staff around wildly. "I'm armed!"

"You're the worst choice." the haunting voice repeated.

"I take back what I said before." A voice that sounded a lot like Rin's childish voice whispered, "Len would've done better, and he knew it."

"You're a deadweight." Miku's cold voice called out from the darkness.

"Guys!" Piko cried as he moved closer and closer to the small ring of light.

"We're all dead, and this is how you live our legacy?" four voices echoed. Piko looked into the fire and was shocked to see the four faces of the lost staring back at him.

"You're not a leader. You shouldn't be here. You're not a leader. You shouldn't be here." The seven voices repeated the mantra and steadily got louder. Piko turned back around and saw the bodies of Miku, Len, and Rin all walking towards him.

"I'm not a leader. I shouldn't be here. I'm not a leader. I shouldn't be here." Piko quietly cried to himself along with the other voices who now had owners.

"You're useless!" Miku cried out.

"Unskilled!" Rin called out.

"You stole what should've been mine!" Len growled.

"You should be stronger." Kaito said from the fire.

"Tougher." Gakupo agreed.

"Wiser." Luka whispered.

"Smarter." Gumi stated.

"I know!" Piko cried out as he sank to his knees. "I know!" and just like that. The voices disappeared. Piko looked around and the fire was crackling merrily with no signs of the hunters they were travelling with. He looked behind himself and there was nobody in sight. "It was, a dream?" Piko asked himself.

"Hey Piko! Anyone home?" a voice sang happily.

"Rin?" Piko blinked and the bright face of Rin came into view.

"You're lucky Rin thought about waking you up." Len said darkly as he put a piece of the squirrel on a cracker. His glasses flashed from the fire and at that exact moment he looked as menacing as he sounded.

"Here. You've got to keep your strength up." Rin smiled as she gave him a cracker with some squirrel meat on it.

"Thanks." Piko sighed as he accepted the food.

"Mm-hmm." Rin nodded as she skipped back to where everyone was. Miku was resting on the ground with one leg extended and the other bent so her right arm could rest on her knee. Len was also on the ground but was leaning against a tree with both legs out in front of him.

"What's the plan for tonight?" Piko asked.

"Aren't you the leader?" Len asked scathingly.

"Right. Well…" Piko trailed off before standing up to get more food. "We'll just do what we normally do. Just sleep on the ground. I'll take the first shift, who wants the second?"

"I'll take the second." Miku said since nobody spoke up.

"I'll take the third because Len needs his beauty sleep." Rin teased as she poked her brother.

"That leaves me to the last shift." Len agreed.

"Well. Good night." Miku said as she took out a sleeping bag and placed it near the fire before crawling into the warm cocoon.

Len ate one last cracker before taking out another sleeping bag and repeating the same steps as Miku. "Night." Len said curtly before snuggling into his own warm cocoon.

"Hey. Are you alright Piko?" Rin whispered as she scooted next to him.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Piko said breathily, but like always, fine doesn't really mean fine. On the inside Piko was reeling from the hallucination that he just saw.

"That's good. Do you think they're still alive?" she mused as she looked up into the sky to see the crumbling moon.

"Of course. They're much more experienced than us. There's no way they're dead." Piko said firmly. Whether he was reassuring Rin or himself, that's still debatable.

"We'll find them. Right?" Rin asked as she turned to look at her silver haired companion.

"Absolutely." Piko nodded.

"I'm going to hit the hay as well." Rin sighed as she stood up and stretched. "Good night."

"Good night." Piko replied. "That was just a dream. Just a dream." Piko repeated over and over to himself as soon as Rin had settled into her sleeping bag.

"Piko." A voice called from the fire. Piko turned to look and clamped a hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming and waking everybody up. Another face stared up at him from the fire.


	4. Chapter 4

"Miku. Where are we even going?" Rin asked as the four of them trekked through the woods.

"Where are you going." Miku said pointedly, "we're not going anywhere."

"But-" Rin protested

"I'm just following Miku." Piko said sheepishly.

Len glared at Rin and she could tell it was taking all of his self-restraint to not say 'I told you'. There was a loud roar and that broke Len from his intense glaring.

"Where is it?" Piko cried out.

Everyone looked for Miku and the fact that she was scrambling up a tree was enough of a clue to get everyone to a safer place.

"What type of grimm is that?" Rin shrieked when the large rhino like grimm made its appearance.

"Clearly a rhino-type." Len explained from his own perch, "we'll take it down, or else it'll terrorize someone else." He then took out his black handguns and proceeded to shower the grimm with bullets. This caused the grimm to roar in protest and swat at the tree that Len was sitting in. "Incoming!" he yelled before jumping down to land on the grimm. In midair his gun transformed into a deadly looking ninja star and he immediately stabbed two of them into the grimm's eyes.

"Readying a fire dust arrow!" Rin called out as the fan released two bars to the side and a string was strung in between. She then took out a small red pellet and loaded it into the string. She pulled back and the pellet turned into an arrow. "Firing in three, two, one!" Rin let go of the string and the red arrow flew through the air into the grimm. Len used the momentum to shoot himself into the air and grab onto another bush.

"I'm calling a joint attack with Rin and Piko! Piko you're shooting, Rin, go wild!" Len called out.

"You got it!" Rin grinned as the two bars that stuck out of her fan returned to the fan and it opened. She then jumped down and landed a hefty blow onto the grimm's head.

"There's a second one coming up! Miku and I will take care of that!" Len yelled as he jumped down from the tree and ran towards the second grimm coming their way. Miku followed him and jumped from tree to tree to the grimm.

"I'll take care of the close combat!" Miku commanded, "you keep it distracted!" Len nodded before leaping up into a tree and releasing a rain of bullets onto the grimm, which effectively caused it to stagger and lose balance.

Miku let out a yell as she stabbed her bow into the grimm. It had transformed so it was like the original bow, but doubled so it was symmetrical in two ways instead of one. Her hand held onto the center part and the ridged and pointed edges proved to be a force to reckon. She then proceeded to twirl around and batter the grimm at it's legs to cause it to fall.

"Head shot!" Len yelled as he fired a powerful shot at the grimm's head. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get through the hard skeleton protecting the head. "I lied!"

Miku scoffed before jumping on top of the grimm and pulling the bow around the grimm's neck. "A little help would be nice!"

Len responded by running to the front of the grimm with his two guns out in front of him. "On three! One, two three!" Len shot the grimm and Miku used the momentum to force herself backwards and sever the head of the grimm.

"Almost!" Miku shouted.

"I've got it!" Piko called out, "switch!" Piko ran towards the grimm that Len and Miku were fighting as Len ran to support his twin. Piko then took the curved end of his staff and pulled it across the rest of the grimm's almost severed head. With a final yell the head was cleanly cut off. He and Miku then returned to the grimm that Len and Rin were fighting only to see Len shooting the grimm one more time before Rin flew down from what only could be described as the sky and landing a powerful blow on the grimm's head. The grimm fell forwards and the rose petals that were coming off of it were the only indication that it was dead.

"Hah! Competent." Len scoffed to Miku as he wiped his brow.

"Whatever." Miku scoffed in return as the bow returned to a singular bow and she returned it to the holster on her back.

"Nobody's hurt?" Piko asked worriedly. He received two scathing glares from a certain ponytailed blond and a twin tailed teal.

"Nope, no one's hurt!" Rin responded cheerfully. "Are you?"

"Of course not." Piko answered as he dusted off his white trench coat.

"Then let's get moving." Len commanded as he straightened his baggy and honestly hazardous sleeves. Mostly because they were only connected by two clips to his shirt.

"Who died and made you leader?" Miku asked savagely as she referred to the same words Len had asked her hours ago.

"Nobody died, but nobody's taking the role, so I decided to take it so nobody does die!" Len shot back with an extra emphasis on the word 'does'.

"Well news flash." Miku yelled back while throwing her hands up in front of her as if putting a text box, "nobody asked you!"

"Guess who doesn't really care about everyone else!" Len put his hands up mockingly and almost pointed to himself before fully pointing to Miku.

"Well my sincere apologies." Miku said caustically, "I didn't realize that you actually needed me to care about everyone else, because it seemed like you had it all under control."

Len opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by his sister, "okay, let's stop. You both have too much fire in you, any much longer and the two of you will be breathing fire at each other." Len gave a fiery glare to Miku who responded with her own icy glare. "Len." Rin once again used her warning tone on her brother.

"Rin." Len said using the same tone she had used on him.

"Just let it go." She uttered quietly under her breath as she reached out to sooth him.

Len nodded but Rin could still see his was tense, and the dark blue of his eyes clearly stated that this was not over. "Fine. Piko. Lead the way."

"Right." Piko nodded before taking out his scroll and letting it pop open. He examined the map on the holographic screen before deciding, "okay, the closest town is a small one a few miles from here. We'll go there and gather information."

"Lead the way." Len stated again as his voice bordered on menacing.

"Right." Piko nodded before taking a step to lead the way.

"Um, Len." Rin slowly walked next to her brother after Piko and a sulky Miku.

"What?" Len snapped.

"What were you talking about when you said Piko's not natural?" she asked quietly. Len seemed to falter in his step for a moment after he heard Rin's question.

"I've never entered a human before." Len muttered quietly, "I don't think that's even a part of my semblance."

"So, Piko's not a human." Rin stated firmly.

"No. Well, yes. I mean, I don't know." Len stuttered, "what I saw wasn't a computer. It was something completely foreign."

"What do you mean?" Rin asked.

"It was almost like those myths where your life flashes before your eyes before you die. There were so many things that I was seeing, but something that seemed to be a theme was that they all seemed to be a thing experiencing slow internet connection. One moment it'd be in one place, it'd flicker, and be in another place." Len seemed to be a bit more calm because his eyes no longer held a fierce, dark blue gaze, but was now a confused cloudy blue.

Rin blinked her own crystal clear blue eyes, "what?"

"Look, I don't know either. Is he a person, is he an android, is he both? I don't know. But I have come to one conclusion. Piko doesn't see those images."

"And how do you know that?" Rin asked confusedly as her own eyes took on a confused cloudy blue as she got caught up in Len's web of confusion.

"Does he look like he has problems of randomly flickering near death sights?" Len asked in disbelief.

Rin looked at the leader of their little quad and the little skip in his step seemed to completely go against what Len had just described, "okay. Point taken, but maybe he's just really good at hiding. Really good."

"Really? Piko?" Len asked in disbelief once again.

"Yes. You don't know. It's always the people with the brightest smiles who have the darkest past." Rin said quietly as she took on a depressed aura.

Len seemed to pick up on what she was talking about and put an arm on her shoulder, "I'm sorry. But it's all in the past."

"Len, you can't just brush that off!" Rin said incredulity as she pushed his arm of her shoulder. "Do you realize how much that affected all of us?"

"Isn't a sorry good enough?" Len asked.

"It'll never be good enough." Rin said coldly, "a sorry won't fix how much you crushed me. How you crushed us." She emphasized the word 'us' and pointed to the two of them, "how you've forever crushed and dismembered everything!" she then walked away angrily in a huff away from her beloved brother.

"I'm sorry." Len said quietly, but of course it was heard by noone.


	5. Chapter 5

Two days later and resources and tempers were reaching a danger zone. Not that temper was ever not in a danger zone.

"I can't believe you led us to a ghost town." Len griped angrily.

"The map said that there was a town there." Piko defended.

"Question. Why hasn't anybody called anyone?" Len asked.

"I don't have anyone I can call." Miku responded, "all of my teammates are MIA, plus nobody wants to be friends with the creepy girl who's two years too young for the school and probably knows more than you."

"My teammates have changed their scroll numbers." Piko explained.

"That's not weird at all." Len muttered under his breath.

"I honestly didn't think about it." Rin said sheepishly while looking slightly ashamed.

"And you, Len?" Miku asked accusingly.

"Deleted their numbers. We never really liked each other." Len shrugged.

"Hey, Neru?" Rin asked into her scroll.

"What do you want, dummy?" a harsh voice asked from the other side of the phone call.

"Hey, so, I'm kind of lost in the woods…" Rin began, but the dial tone coming from her scroll signified that Neru hung up.

"Well, Neru seems...nice?" Piko said after a moment of silence.

"Don't sugar coat it." Len said dismissively, "you can say she's rude, we agree."

"Hello, flower?"

"Y'ello." A voice drawled, Piko furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he couldn't figure out if the owner had a masculine or feminine voice.

"She's a girl, she's just got an androgynous sounding voice." Len explained.

"Hi, so I'm kind of stuck in the woods…."

"Stuck or lost?"

Rin paused for a moment before sighing in defeat, "lost."

"Know your coordinates?"

Rin waved frantically to Piko who told the coordinates into the phone for Rin's teammate.

"Yeah, well I'm pretty much on the other side." Flower trailed off, "the closest town is about ten miles west. Don't go east though, the map says there's a town there. There isn't."

"We've figured that out." Rin sighed, "could I ask you a favor?"

"Shoot."

"If you don't hear from me in a few days, could you come for us?"

"Us? As in more than you? Like...you and Len?" Flower asked confusedly.

"There's four of us." Rin said tiredly, "that's a long story."

"Not asking." Flower laughed, "hopefully I'll see you around, and not six feet under."

"That's not funny." Rin deadpanned.

"Yeah, that kind of sucked." Flower agreed. "Alright, see ya."

"See ya!" Rin said as she pressed 'hang up'. "Well, ten miles to the west we'll go!" she cried out as she cheerfully marched away.

"Rin. That's south." Len sighed.

Rin turned left, "onwards!"

"Rin." Len sighed again.

Rin spun around, "that way!"

"You really aren't smart, are you?" Miku asked as she followed Rin.

"Rude!" Rin called out.

"I'm merely stating the truth." Miku shrugged.

"Still! It's rude!" Rin crossed her arms in frustration as she stopped walking to turn around and face Miku.

"And here I thought you didn't want us to be fighting." Len drawled as he strolled past Rin.

"I'm not fighting." Rin pouted as she turned her attention away from Miku to Len.

"Keep telling yourself that." Len nodded.

"Come on. Let's just get going." Piko said as he walked in between Len and Rin to take the lead.

"Yes dad." Len said sarcastically.

"Len!" Rin chastised as she smacked the back of his head.

"Hey!"

"Break it up ladies." Miku called back to the twins.

The four of them trekked through the woods in silence. It was mostly a mutual silence, because Piko had no idea what to talk about, Miku didn't want to talk, Len was musing to himself in silence, and Rin. Well, she was daydreaming.

Both Piko and Miku tensed when they heard something rustling in the bushes. "Who's there!" Piko called out.

"It's probably a grimm." Miku stated blandly.

"Well, I don't believe in the 'shoot first, questions later' way of life. So we're going to ask first, shoot later." Piko responded, but if you looked closely there was a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"Don't go running to me when the grimm mauls you in the face." Miku muttered as she readied her weapon to shoot.

"You all are just paranoid." Piko said with confidence as he pushed the bush to the side. "Hello?" he looked around and there wasn't anything to be seen, "it was just the wind."

"Look out!" Rin screamed as Len launched himself at Piko and tackled the two of them to the ground.

"Len, what?" Piko asked confusedly but trailed off when he saw a grimm attack the spot where he just was.

"Just a boarbatusk, it's fine. We'll take it down in a couple of shots." Rin cried out as ran at the grimm and landed a few hits on it.

"Switch!" Len called out as he jumped to his feet and dug the points of his guns into the fleshy part of the grimm and let loose a round of shots.

"Switch!" Rin cried out again as Len flipped off of the grimm before Rin swung her fan around and hit the boarbatusk like a baseball. The grimm let out a pained whine before falling to the ground and decomposing with a whole bunch of red flower petals.

"Where were you during that whole confrontation?" Len asked Miku.

"You two had a system going. You didn't need me." She said nonchalantly before walking off in the direction they had intended.

"Sorry about tackling you." Len said as he held out a hand for Piko, "but I'm also not."

"Thanks anyways." Piko smiled as he grabbed Len's hand and pulled himself up.

"Yeah, I saved you from getting impaled." Len said nonchalantly, but that easily wiped the smile off of Piko's face.

"Yeah. Well, come on, let's go. Don't want to get left behind!" Piko smiled before running after Miku and Rin.

"You're too optimistic for your own good." Len sighed.

"Grimm alert!" Rin called out from the front of the group.

"Where?" Len and Piko demanded as they unsheathed their weapons and ran closer to Rin and Miku.

"There's a couple up ahead, a couple behind us. Pick your poison." Miku said articulately as she drew her bow.

"Stay close. Splitting apart is what got us in this mess in the first place." Len stated before leaping up a tree.

Miku nodded before leaping up a tree as well, "stand your ground Piko. I know how hard it is for you to do that."

Piko sent a polite glare at Miku before hardening his stance. The first howl broke through the air with the arrival of three ursa.

"Left!" Len yelled before launching himself at the Ursa and burying his ninja stars into the grimm's eyes.

Miku was rapidly shooting arrows comprised of an explosive dust that also gave a slight electrocution on impact. She easily took care of the remaining two ursas who appeared.

Rin turned around and bashed a grimm's head back into it's neck as it tried to sneak up on her and Piko. "Thought you were smart, didn't you!" she taunted as she twirled around and beat it on the head again. "Well, guess who's cute, smart, and tougher than you!" she cried out as she spun around again and her skirt and shawl twirled around her body. "Homerun!" she hit the ursa one more time before it fell over.

Piko ducked under a grimm's head and caught it's head on the curved end of his staff. He jumped up and tore the head off in one fell swoop before landing back on the ground with his staff now a rifle. He quickly shot the couple beowulf's who had made their appearance before running at them, tripping them with his staff and then shooting them a couple more times for reassurance.

"I'm going after the one's in the sky!" Miku called as she shot a silver arrow into the sky which embedded itself in a flying nevermore. She then seemed to fly up towards it and the only explanation for that would be a mechanism that was attached to the silver arrow. She then used her bow to take out three more nevermore's in the sky before winding her bow against the nevermore's neck and steering it around in the sky.

Len finished off the ursa before running in to help Rin battle a deathstalker. "I'm trusting your shield on this!" Len called out to Rin. She responded with a nod before opening up her fan and propping it on the ground. The deathstalker shrieked and the stinger clanged against her open fan as it tried to attack Rin who was hiding underneath. Len ran up to the deathstalker while it was momentarily dazed and attacked the jointed section of the stinger. "Switch!" he cried out as he rolled to the side and the stinger lodged itself into the ground where Len was a moment ago. Rin let loose a battle cry before running at it with her closed fan, jumping over the head, and swinging at the jointed section Len was just severing at. "If we get the stinger to fall on it's head, it's a goner!" Len called out as he shot the face to distract it.

"Alright, sounds good!" Rin cried out as she jumped off, "switch!" Len climbed up the stinger and began to shoot the fleshy part where the stinger connected with the rest of the body.

"Distract it!" Len cried out in a panic as he was shaken around and he hung on like his life depended on it.

"Hey ugly!" she cried out as she shot a plethora of mini arrows into it's face. This only infuriated the grimm more and Len flew off and crashed painfully into another grimm's face. "Len!" Rin cried out in a panic.

"Deal with the deathstalker!" Len shouted as his body glowed; signifying that his aura was working in overdrive.

Rin nodded and raised her fan above her head before driving it into the skull of the deathstalker into the ground. "Take that!" she then ran to the stinger and unfolded her fan before quickly running it where Len was shooting. The fan broke through the flesh and the stinger fell with a crunch onto the grimm's head.

"Agh!" Rin spun around to see her brother thrown off another grimm and onto the ground.

"Len!" she looked worriedly at her blond companion as she took in the fainter glow of his body.

"There's still more that need to be taken care of!" he shouted as he staggered to his feet. "I'm fine! I can deal with this on my own!"

Piko took this as his cue to run in to the rescue and behead a taijutsu that looked ready to swallow Len whole. Len didn't notice this exchange at all and ran towards the closest grimm with guns ablaze. Miku then decided to drop back in and crush a beowulf under her as a nevermore fell to the ground behind her. "This seems to be the last of them."

"Good, because I don't know how much longer Len can hold." Piko nodded as he hooked his weapon around an ursa and swung himself on top of it before beheading this one as well.

"Well then, tell him to sit out!" Miku demanded.

"You tell him! He's not going to listen to me!" the two of them looked over when they heard Rin cry out in pain as a beowulf swiped at her. "We need to get back to civilization and fast. We're getting destroyed and this is half of what we've dealt with before."

"Tell me about it." Miku scoffed as she spun around her double bow and chopped off both arms of a beowulf.

"Mind manipulating time and charging through this horde?" Piko asked.

"Don't order me around." Miku said but sped off towards the oncoming horde of grimm anyways. Piko looked around and barely had time to react as a grimm charged at him. His green eye glowed for a fraction of a second before he flickered away.

"Piko! Don't disappear like that! Where'd you go!" Len yelled in a fury. He looked around just in time to see Piko flicker in the air before falling to the ground and taking off the head of a huge grimm. Len gaped as a his web of confusion cleared up. He was so lost that he didn't realize a boarbatusk in it's deadly chakram like form spinning at him

"Len!" Rin screeched as she tried to run for him but was blocked by an ursa who swiped at her in her moment of panic and managed to land a hit.

Len snapped back into reality just in time to feel the boarbatusk crash into him and send him reeling and howling in pain into the ground. His howl was cut short as he hit the ground.

Piko quickly took action and shot the boarbatusk dead to keep it from mauling Len's unconscious body anymore. He then turned to help Rin as she tried to run away from the ursa as she held a glowing hand to the her open wounds.

"I'm back!" Miku yelled as she fired a couple last arrows to take out the last beowulfs. She looked around to see the battle ridden ground with countless flower petals rising into the sky, and a blob of yellow, black, and red laying on the ground. "You guys have a huge injury to deal with!" she cried out as she ran to the fallen form of Len.

"We know!" Rin shrieked as she ran towards Len while Piko took care of the ursa. She slid on her knees to Len's side and turned his unresponsive body so he was facing up. "Get bandages. He's out of aura and I've already used my semblance for my own wounds." She demanded of Miku. Miku huffed but dug through her pack for bandages anyways. Rin put two glowing yellow hands to Len's side where he was a bloodied mess. Half of his black shirt was a bloodied shredded mess. The blood didn't go away, but the open wounds closed themselves up and he was no longer bleeding profusely. Rin sighed before falling sideways onto the ground, "that's all I can do." She said faintly before her eyes fluttered closed.

Piko quickly took the bandages that had been found and wrapped it around Len's arm; right after he unclipped his black sleeves from his shirt. He wrapped the wounded arm tightly with the bandages and checked to make sure there were no more wounds. "That's all we can do for now." Piko stated as he sat back onto his heels.

"Man, we got destroyed today." Miku sighed.

"We need help fast." Piko agreed.

"Why get help when we already have it." Len muttered as his eyes snapped open.


End file.
